>> Some folks still think that FDR (and Keynes) got things wrong.

> They did get things wrong. But that's my opinion. And economics isn't a science but a confidence game, mostly.

I'm curious to know in what way you think FDR/Keynes got it wrong.

Hoover and others tried things in the (then) orthodox way in the early 1930s and things didn't recover. Further, as the Delong link shows, as soon as other countries followed the US' lead they too started to recover.

Then, when the US went back to then-orthodoxy in ~1936 under political pressure and moved towards (e.g.) a balanced budget, the economy started tanking right away. Further, the orthodoxy of (so-called) "sound money" and balanced budgets caused political turmoil in more than one country:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity:_The_History_of_a_Da...

A whole bunch of folks had to relearn this not too long ago when there was a push for "expansionary austerity", which Keynesians said would be bad for economic growth/recovery post-GFC, and which did in fact turn out to be bad:

* https://archive.is/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/...

> But why mess with the price signal? So that you can pick and choose winners and losers.

Actually it's to regulate/moderate economic activity. Because it is not Friedman's money supply (quantity) that determines price stability (i.e., the rate of inflation), but rather its velocity. Even Milton Friedman admitted (Financial Times, 7 June 2003) that "The use of quantity of money as a target has not been a success. I'm not sure I would as of today push it as hard as I once did."

* https://myweb.liu.edu/~uroy/eco54/histlist/Friedman_M/moneta...

Even in the right-leaning Reagan/Thatcher 1980s central banks (e.g., Fed under Volker) gave up on money supply control and went to interest rates. This was formalized staring in the 1990s:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_targeting

> Gold has been confiscated and expropriated from civilian hands

What?

* https://www.cbsnews.com/news/costcos-gold-bars-are-selling-o...

* https://www.usgoldbureau.com/category/gold/gold-bars

* https://www.usmint.gov/coins/precious-metal-coins/gold/

> […] and 90% of the world's trade and debt is dollarized.

And before that most of the world's trade was (British) 'poundicized', because the UK had the largest economy in the world. And before that…. It seems to be fairly common that world trade tends to be done in the currency of the country that does the largest portion of world's trade—and if two countries are close both of their currencies tend to be used:

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34928281-how-global-curr...

> Work, for whom? By what measure? At what cost? And who paid the costs? You talk about the Great Depression but unless you're a time traveller you'll remember the GFC as well?

Yes, I remember the GFC.

I remember then-monetarists abandoning Friedman's (and Greenspan's) ideas and (re-)embracing those of Keynes. I remember rending of garments by right-leaning folks when QE was announced about the terrible things would happen:

> We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.

* https://www.hoover.org/research/open-letter-ben-bernanke

I remember Keynesian saying it would be fine… and being right.

It was fortunate that Bernanke was the Fed chairman at the time, as his area of academic research was things like the Great Depression (of the 1930s) and how tight monetary policy (dictated by the gold standard) made things worse:

* https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/financial-markets-an...